6+ Dead in London Apartment Building Fire

Reuters news agency reports today that six people are dead and dozens more injured when a fire burned through a 24 floor apartment building in London, England. More than 200 firefighters, backed up by 40 fire engines, fought for hours to try to bring the Grenfell Tower block fire under control. Residents screamed for help from behind upper-floor windows and some tried to throw children to safety as flames raced through the high-rise apartments in the north Kensington district just before 1:00 am local time.

The ambulances service said 69 people had been taken to the hospital and 18 were in critical care. Police Commander Stuart Cundy cautioned the death toll was likely to rise. Firefighting crews were still trying to douse flames as they sought to reach the top floors of the building over 10 hours after the fire started. London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters, “In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale.” The cause of the inferno, which left the tower block a charred, smoking shell, was not immediately known.